In recent years, grain elevators and feed mills have necessarily become increasingly efficient in their operations. Many customers of elevators and feed mills now operate on a “just-in-time” basis. Consequently, it is becoming increasingly important to minimize the duration of any elevator or mill downtime.
In the past, grain handling equipment manufacturers have manufactured downspouts and chutes which carry material from one position to another position. Typically, these downspouts were round and would wear out at their bottom surface because of the abrasion of the grain or other material flowing through the spout. Typically, these spouts would need to be rotated and/or replaced frequently, depending upon the nature of their use. One attempt to prolong the time between replacement of the downspouts has been to employ rectangular-shaped downspouts.
While these round and rectangular spouts have enjoyed much success and have been used extensively in the past, they do have some drawbacks.
First of all, the frequency of replacement or maintenance of these spouts has been less than desirable.
Secondly, maintenance, repair and/or replacement of these spouts often require considerable downtime for unloading, loading or transfer operations and depending upon the spout, may completely shut down the entire unloading operation while the replacement is performed.
Thirdly, because these downspouts are often very long and extremely heavy, they often require the use of a crane to support and lift the spouts.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,028,824 addresses many of these concerns. However, there is considerable labor involved in assembling the downspouts of the '824 patent with its numerous flow retarding members spanning the width of the downspout.
Consequently, there exists a need for improved methods and systems for providing, maintaining, repairing and replacing equipment for delivering dry bulk material in an efficient manner.